Jesse Jackson, Jr. Returns Home Following Treatment For Depression
Jesse Jackson, Jr. Returns Home After Receiving Treatment For Depression
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.‘s aide, Rick Bryant, confirmed that Jackson returned home to his wife and children after being treated for depression in a Mayo Clinic. “He’s at home in Washington convalescing with his wife and children,” Bryant said. “Let’s hope he returns to work on Monday. Congress goes back into session Monday following its summer break. The actual date that the Congressman was discharged is unknown. A spokesman for Mayo Clinic referred all questions regarding his discharge to Jackson’s office. Bryant said he’s not exactly sure when Jackson was discharged. The Congressman’s wife, Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, released a statement saying she and her husband were “thankful for the heartfelt prayers and kind thoughts from so many of our family.”
Jackson went on a secretive medical leave in June after relatives said he collapsed at home. In August, his office said that he was being treated at Mayo Clinic because of depression, after a transfer from the Sierra Tucson Treatment Center in Arizona. The clinic, located in Rochester, Minn., has said Jackson was being treated for Bipolar II, which entailed periodic episodes of depression and hypomania. Former Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who also has dealt with bipolar disorder and been treated at Mayo Clinic, said that the Congressman has “a lot of work” ahead of him on the road to recovery, after visiting him last month. He said Jackson was taking his depression seriously and will have to learn how to treat his illness.
Kennedy has been an outspoken advocate for mental health, and has spoken publicly about his own struggles. He served with Jackson on the House Appropriations Committee, and left Congress last year. Although the Jackson family has made few public comments of the Congressman’s illness, they attributed the stress of his job and political disappointments over the years to his ailing health. Jackson first won office in 1995, and had aspirations of becoming a U.S. senator or Chicago’s mayor. His dreams were shattered in the wake of allegations about his connections to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption.
The House Ethics Committee is currently pending an investigation focusing on allegations that Jackson discussed raising money for Blagojevich’s campaign so the then-Illinois governor would appoint him to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Jackson’s office announced his medical leave days after a former fundraiser connected to the allegations was arrested on unrelated federal medical fraud charges. Jackson denies any wrongdoing.
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Get well Cong. Jackson
It is worthy of taking note that they more often inaccurately and misleadingly refer to his “depression” rather than more correctly to the different specific and more serious mental disorder that he in fact has been diagnosed with, and that is: bipolar disorder.
Glad to know that you are home and on the path to a speedy recovery,Congressman Jesse Jackson. Our best wishes,thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.